Uttarakhand to have its second Vidhan Sabha at Gairsain

Following the footsteps of Maharashtra and Jammu &Kashmir, Uttarakhand will soon have its second Vidhan Sabha building at Gairsain, a remote central area in the hill state.

A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting of the state Cabinet on Saturday, which was held in Gairsain, located in the hilly Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. This was the second instance in the 12-year-old history of the hill state that the Cabinet met outside Dehradun, which is the interim Capital of the hill state. In 2010, the then chief minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, held a Cabinet meeting at Har-Ki-Pauri as part of the campaign to save Ganga from pollution.

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Describing the Cabinet meet as historic, an official statement said laying the foundation stone for the new Vidhan Sabha building would be held on Makar Sakranti, January 14.

Besides the Vidhan Sabha building, various other facilities like residential hostels for MLAs and government officials would also be constructed at Gairsain.

The government had already received funds for a Vidhan Sabha building from the 13th Finance Commission.

One Vidhan Sabha session will be held every year at Gairsain, the chief minister said after the Cabinet meet.

This move is also being seen as the Congress government’s oblique attempt to declare Gairsain as the new capital of Uttarakhand, a long-standing demand of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD), a regional party that spearheaded the separate statehood agitation.

Through this decision, political observers said the Congress party has virtually hijacked the key issue of making Gairsain the permanent capital of Uttarakhand from the UKD.

Though UKD considers Gairsain as a highly emotive issue, it failed to take any political mileage during all the Assembly elections in the past.